If Less Than Three, Return to 10
by STRiPESandShades
Summary: "You do not remember me, Zuse?" Castor's eyes shifted, scanning the scant memory files for this program, "Ah, no, I don't believe I do." / Gem and the DJ programs have all recovered from the explosion fully intact. Unfortunately, Zuse is a different story. / Post-Legacy, tad fluffy / Reading and Reviewing is Fantastic!


**A/N: **Hey guys, this is one of my first TRON fanfics, so hopefully it's all good and you all enjoy!

* * *

The first time she'd seen it again, she'd cried.

It was the End of Line, exactly how she remembered it, gleaming, shining, _perfect_.

And so was he.

Castor, the Grid's host with the most made his way around the Club, shaking hands, waving to programs across the room and swinging his cane around without a care in the world.

For some reason, just watching it unfold as if nothing happened hardly a cycle before made everything worse, the big, fat blobs of spent energy pouring from her eyes.

If he ever saw a female program, inevitably departnered then and there or some other such tragedy, Castor, ever-alert, would drop whatever he was doing and make his way towards her, offering silly-sounding comforting words that would make her laugh through the tears, on occasion a drink and if he felt in the mood, point her towards another lone, attractive-looking program.

For some reason, Gem was surprised that even to the newly-rezzed Castor, this was no exception.

"Well now, pretty miss, just what do you have to cry about hmm?" he asked, forcing her to face him as his cool fingers tugged her chin upwards.

"I- uhh- it's a long story," she stammered.

"Well, come, now, join me at the bar! We'll have ourselves a drink and you can tell me why a lovely program such as yourself is crying in my club- which is not allowed, might I add!"

His arm snaked across her shoulders as he led her to the bar, gesturing with a flourish to an empty stool. However, as soon as she sat, his ping hit her like a ton of packets.

_/~whois GEM_smns_893210_

"You do not remember me, Zuse?" she asked as he arranged himself on the seat beside her..

Castor's eyes shifted, scanning the scant memory files for this program, "Ah, no, I don't believe I do."

Gem's eyes screwed shut for a mere moment before drooping with a sigh. "I require a freaking drink," she mumbled.

Castor, of course, quick to please waved over the bartender, "Ah, one for the lady, on the house. Oh, and if you could put one of the little umbrellas in it, that would be perfection."

"Do you remember who your User is?" she asked.

"Of course I do! Kevin Flynn, who else?"

The bartender set down a tall, thin glass full of glowing liquid, "He's not," she replied, reaching for it, "Your user is the same as mine, we were created together. Don't you even remember your directive, Zuse?"

"You are asking quite a few personal questions of a program you just met, hmmm?" he pointed out. "And I'm not sure if I've ever heard of this 'Zuse' program you're talking about."

"I- I apologize," she stammered, "I must have you confused with- with someone else."

"Hah, must be a well-compiled program!" Castor laughed.

_Who else went through the recovery?_ she thought to herself, looking around the club. Probably no one in this sparse crowd who would know her personally, and even then she wasn't sure who was restored and who simply survived.

As the last song faded away and the next one played up, Gem suddenly got an idea. The DJ's! She remembered watching them derezz right in front of her in the explosion, and they were there when she was restored, not yet ready to be reactivated.

Quickly, she flagged down the bartender for a pair of drinks, bought with the last few credits on her account from reastoration.

She raced up to the DJ booth, pushing the door open with a hip and not bothering to knock.

Suddenly aware of another program in their presence, the two DJ's leaned back from over the control table and turned to face her in the same identical motions.

Gently, Gem set down the two drinks on the top of the table.

"Do you two even remember me?"

…

"_Hello, boys," she announced herself, as she ever-so-smoothly leaned herself at the edge of the mixing table._

_She may not have known much, but after watching them in the empty, tired last hours the Club was open, she knew just which switch to press to alter the mood._

"_Castor says to play something with a little more…_ pep_, and I can't help but agree with him. After all, we do have a User with us tonight."_

_Silently, the twin programs turned to stare at her before turning to each other with a nod._

"_That's some good programs. If you boys need a drink or anything, don't hesitate to ping."_

_She always offered that kind of thing when she had to make the call, and yet, they never did take her up on it._

They turned towards each other. They turned to Gem. They nodded.

She sighed in audible relief. They didn't forget her!

"Castor- Castor doesn't, though. How do I even _begin_ to tell him everything- _anything_?" she stammered.

The two programs continued to stare.

"Of course you won't tell me," she sighed, turning for the door "But thanks, you two. Really. It means a lot that there's someone here who remembers."

_~Merci pour la boisson~ _the binary message pinged as her hand grabbed the door handle.

She knew they messaged in binary to each other, but in all the cycles she knew them, they'd never pinged a word to her.

~_You're welcome_~ she replied, knowing what she had to do.

…

She made her way to the bar- to him, confident that this would work, this would do it, she could have her Zuse back, even if it took her every memory file.

Unhooking her silver identity disk, she carefully placed it in the space between them.

"You may not remember me, but I remember you. I love you, Castor._ I love you, Zuse_. We were created together, to be together, _for each other_. We were designed to be one another's other half. You may not believe me, but you can look through the memory files here. It's not encrypted."

Castor slammed down his glass, and turned to glare "You know what? While as impressed as I am at your tenacity, you are _fantastically_ out of line my dear. I believe it's time you've made your exit, hmmm?"

Stunned, Gem simply clenched her fists and breathed back a sob.

"Buh-bye! Off you go! Don't have to go home, but you shan't stay here!"

The program fled, her arms crossed tight over her stomach as she ran.

That's when he saw it lying casually on the bartop, the thin, silver disc, its circuits fading with every pulse of energy.

…

The glitch hit her, hard. It was the third time she felt it, a hitch in her energy flow that left her chest heavy and aching and her processor reeling. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could survive.

_I love you, my Castor_ "Wh-what's my name again?" she panted. _I love you, my Zuse_.

Designations and directives could be forgotten, but that she would never forget.

_We were created together. To be together. For each other_. _"_Directive. Directive: Supply conscripts for- no, that's not right."

"D-Data gathering-! _Data gathering!_ Search-s-search engine- take on- take on other directives… report to Zuse- End- End- End of Line database!" her vocoder choked. "Initiated 5- 5- 5- 15- 5-18-1991"

"Identification… not… found…"

Her visual sensory flickered erratically.

She could have sworn she heard a voice she recognized, "Oh, poor precious."

Then everything faded to black.

…

"Hey, look who's still with us."

Flynn. Not the one she remembered, the other one. Her sensory code activated, line by line, and slowly she began to feel the silvery hand in hers.

The room was simple, a cube of white, uncomplicated code. She'd seen many other such chambers like this in her lifecycle, during a brief stint as a Medic. Being a restored program, she knew she had to be on a thin, floating repair table powered underneath by a thick column holding the blue, glowing energy liquid.

"Thank the Users," Zuse breathed.

"I- I was straying…"

"I know, precious, I know," he replied, tucking a wayward lock of hair back into her ever-present bun. "I can hardly imagine what it would be to lose your other half."

Gem's eyes widened, "You remember me."

Sam answered, "When I got him back on, I must've messed up a line in the middle somewhere. But now you're both in one piece so you can get back to your original directives."

Before Flynn could form the door, she called out to him, "Wait! Why did you restore us? Don't you still resent us for what we've done?"

"No," was all the User replied.

* * *

**A/N: **A few notes on fanon and things:

In my headcannon, the "credits" Gem used are actually just clearance from the Users to use the system's energy, higher-priority programs have more "credits", and more clearance to get more energy than a "poor" low-priority one. They don't actually trade amongst themselves, they're programs, but they are given a per-cycle "allowance" from the Users as clearance. Pretend this makes sense, readers.

I also stole a few elements from the Ram: Expanded series by _, like the binary pings and such.

Also, hopefully my idea of what Gem and Zuse's real directives were somewhat clear enough, but if it isn't, lemme know in the review and I can give a better explanation.

Thank you so much for reading – and reviews are fantastic!


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